NEW YORK - Vourno, the premier crowdfunding platform and independent news network for video journalism, has announced its expansion into the United Kingdom.

As of today, journalists with a valid UK bank account have the ability to create projects and participate in this revolutionary platform. Vournos can run campaigns in British Pounds (GBP) and accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit card payments from Pubs around the world. All funds received on successfully funded campaigns will be paid in GBP. This feature means that funds stay as GBP rather than being exchanged into U.S. dollars. The end results are savings on foreign exchange fees and a seamless user experience.

"Our goals as a company are to democratize the news worldwide, take crowdfunded reporting to the next level and change the entire news landscape for years to come" said Joseph Verdirame, Co-Founder of Vourno. "We're excited to offer our platform to journalists in the UK and empower them to raise money for news stories that matter most. We continue to work on making our platform easy for our customers to use so that important stories can be covered. Crossing the Atlantic and launching in the UK is the first of many international releases. We're focused on bringing Vourno to more journalists worldwide."

Vourno will be launching in Australia, Belgium, France, Ireland and The Netherlands in the near future.

About Vourno

Vourno is an independent online platform where news is pitched, funded and distributed openly. Vourno provides journalists with the tools to raise capital for the creation and production of quality, newsworthy content and gives the public the ability to directly fund, share, watch and rate those stories. Successfully funded and completed projects can be uploaded, showcased and distributed on our network. Vourno, headquartered in The Bronx, New York, launched in the U.S. on May 20, 2013 and in Canada on July 9, 2013. For more information, visit www.vourno.com and follow us at www.twitter.com/vourno and www.facebook.com/vourno.

Last month, Ms. Johnston and Ms. Gadkari, both freelance journalists, launched their pitch on vourno.com. Their documentary, Long-Distance Mama, will cover the lives of Ukrainian women working in Italy as domestic workers and the impact their migration has had on their families.

They successfully reached their funding goal of $4,000 and had the support of 47 Pubs to create this story.

Our company is excited for Ms. Johnston and Ms. Gadkari. Not only will they have the opportunity to travel to Rome to cover this story, but they proved that the public is willing to support journalists and the news stories that matter most to them.

To date, we have had two projects created on our platform and both successfully reached their funding goal.